Forgive Belleville head boys volleyball coach John Spina for feeling like this is a story he’s seen before.
Once again, the Bucs have shaken off a rough start to the season, turned things around and are heading to the Essex County Tournament quarterfinals, this time after a 25-19, 25-15 victory over Glen Ridge in Friday’s first round.
The win, Belleville’s fourth in a row, put Belleville over .500 for the first time all season at 7-6. Three days earlier, the Bucs dominated Newark Lab, 25-7, 25-14 in the preliminary round.
Belleville, seeded sixth, will now play defending champion and third-seeded Livingston in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. The Bucs will be seeking their first trip to the semifinals since 2017, as they have lost in the quarterfinals each of the previous seven seasons.
“It’s like our standard has been starting our season slow, picking things up, and they, every year, we’re in a quarterfinal match (but lose),” said Spina.
“In the beginning of the season, when we had a couple of injuries that resulted in kids that were done for the season so we had to reshuffle the deck and it took a little while for us to start establishing some cohesion.”
The biggest change has been the move of Aleka Dusic from middle hitter to outside hitter. The move has allowed the 6-foot-2 senior to blossom on the court as he now leads the team in kills in 98 to go with 103 digs.
“Right away, from the first game, with the way Dusic was swinging, he was putting the ball down and he was pretty unstoppable,” Spina said. “But our passing wasn’t sharp enough where we could utilize him as much as I wanted to so we had to move him to the outside.”
Joining Dusic on the outside has been Gabriel Campos, a three-year starter. The 6-foot-1 senior has 93 kills and 71 digs on the season.
The move of Dusic to the outside led to the shift of Barron Tran from outside to opposite, where the 5-foot-10 senior’s leaping ability has allowed him to post 38 kills and 23 blocks.
Spina’s projected middle hitters were supposed to be Dusic and Caleb Love, but with Dusic’s move to the outside and Love sidelined as he continues to recover for a serious injury suffered during football season,
The void has been filed by multiple players, most notably 6-foot-3 junior David Ochoa and 6-foot-2 freshman Sean Sharpe, who is tied with Tran for the team lead in blocks with 23.
Seniors Chris Gomez and Jeraldi Sylvain have also been in the rotation in the middle.
On the backline, senior Victor Toledo has emerged as the starting libero and has 121 digs. In Thursday’s first round win, Toledo matched his career high in digs with 17.
“Victor’s been like a machine,” Spina said. “The last couple of games, he’s been on point from the service line and his passing’s been really good. Michael (Hernandez) fits in as our right side defensive specialist.”
Hernandez, a senior, has had 58 digs.
At setter, junior Peter Garcia has 248 assists, while also recording 19 kills and 67 digs.
Kalibe Laquindanum, Myles Remata, Brennan Delos Santos and Rodolfo Candalera have all seen time for Belleville as well over the course of the season.
Following the quarterfinals at Livingston, Belleville is scheduled for regular season contests against Irvington and Paterson Arts on Wednesday and Thursday.
If Belleville defeats Livingston, it will play the West Caldwell Tech-East Orange winner in the semifinals on Friday at West Essex.
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Elsewhere in the Essex County Tournament, Bloomfield, the top seed, made quick work of Irvington in its first round matchup, defeating the 16th-seeded Blue Knights, 25-19, 25-15. Bloomfield will host the winner of Monday’s Orange-Payne Tech match in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Nutley, the 10th seed, opened with a 25-10, 25-11 victory over 23rd-seeded Newark Central in the preliminary round behind eight kills from senior Shane Castellanos.
The Raiders’ tournament run came to an end in the first round when it fell to seventh-seeded East Orange, 25-7, 25-20.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)